Series Firsts Box Set Page 21

  When he came toward her she backed away, holding up her palms. “No,” she said. Fuck me for still having my mind in bad places. Fuck me.

  He frowned. “I need to check your wound.” And the rage inside him colored his eyes a deeper blue. “You will not be afraid of me.”

  Her voice came out in a whisper so full of tears she could barely force it past her lips. “I’m not.” But she was afraid. Afraid of something she could not name. She was afraid of him. And she had no idea why. He wouldn’t hurt her. No. You’d like that.

  “I’m not afraid,” she said, her attempts at scorn failing miserably. “I’m just tired. Ellis is coming and will tend me. Go do your business.”

  He stared down at her for what seemed like hours before finally nodding. “I’ll go as soon as he gets here.”

  Before Jeremy has a chance to run. He didn’t have to say it. It was there in his eyes.

  At that moment Ellis burst through the door. He ran to Rune and jerked her into his arms, and she saw the berserker narrow his eyes at her immediate involuntary stiffening at the contact.

  Ellis simply held her tighter. Her reflexive reaction to touches that weren’t going to hurt her was nothing new to him. He ignored it.

  She couldn’t meet Strad’s eyes. “Go, Strad. And please…”

  “I’ll let you know,” he said, and strode out the door.

  Ellis led her to the bathroom and helped her off with her weapons and jacket before checking her wound. By that time her flesh was already mending and the pain, thank God, was less.

  “Damn it, Rune.”

  “I know. I seem to be inclined toward violent occurrences.” She smiled, trying to ease the look in his eyes.

  He washed her arm and began to bandage it. His eyes were shiny with unshed tears. “Tell me.”

  She did. His fingers stilled as she told him about the video, then without warning he began crying, hard and loud.

  “Fuck, Ellie. Don’t do that.”

  Someone knocked on the front door, the thumps tentative. Ellis stared at her, his sobs lessening.

  “Probably one of the crew,” she said, and grimaced as Ellis helped her put her shirt back on. Maybe it was Strad returning. The thought didn’t exactly displease her. Still, she grabbed a shiv and stuck it into her pocket, just in case it was someone looking for trouble—like Jeremy.

  But when she flipped the porch light on and stared out the fisheye, she groaned. It was the three wolves from earlier. Impatient little bastards.

  They hadn’t bothered with coats despite the sunless cold of the night. Wolves ran hot and didn’t feel the cold the way humans did.

  She opened the door.

  Sherry climbed the steps to the porch to join them, her face pale. “Alexander.”

  Rune nodded and held the door open. “Come in.”

  “There’s a man across the street,” Sherry told her. “He’s watching the house. Probably because it’s so fucking ugly, but you never know.” She glanced at the bandage peeking out beneath Rune’s sleeve but didn’t comment.

  Rune shook her arm. It was almost back to normal. Already.

  A subdued Ellis came into the room. He nodded hello to the wolves, then turned to Rune. “Call me if you need me.” He kissed her forehead and left.

  Rune walked to the edge of the porch. “I see him.” He leaned against a streetlight, and was holding something she couldn’t quite make out. She walked down the steps, Sherry at her back.

  “Dude,” she called. “What do you want?”

  He straightened up and began lifting his hands, and her first thought was that he had a gun. She dove to the side and came up with a blade in her hand, wishing she’d taken time to buckle on her guns.

  There was no gunfire—the man held up a camera as she knelt in her yard, her senses on full alert.

  “Sorry,” he called. “Just getting a picture.”

  Fucking reporter. She growled and pushed her blade back into its sheath, tempted to run across the street and scare the asshole. But she didn’t need to give Spiritgrove another reason to turn against her.

  Not that they were going to need another reason. By then Jeremy might have shared the video. Dread slid through her body, settling in its usual, familiar place in the pit of her stomach.

  The minute she thought it, a white news van rolled down the street and came to rest in front of her house. Either the local news station was bored, or they’d gotten the video. But she really didn’t think that was it. When that video hit the public, there’d be one hell of an uproar—not just a single quiet van.

  “Better get inside,” Sherry said, her gaze questioning. “You’re a popular girl, Alexander.”

  Rune sighed and went back in. The three wolves sat around her table, not in the least bit curious about whatever Rune and Sherry had been wrestling with outside.

  The two women had their hands folded and studied them as though they contained the secrets of the universe.

  The man looked at Rune, but his gaze slid away in seconds. She could smell submission all over them.

  Sherry leaned against the wall. “You have coffee?”

  Rune pointed her chin toward the giant coffeemaker on her countertop. “Help yourselves.”

  Sherry pulled a mug off the coffee tree and glanced at the others. “You guys want coffee?”

  “Yeah,” the man said. “We’ll have some.”

  “Okay,” Rune said, when everyone was settled in with coffee. “Who are you?”

  Sherry pointed them out. “Dave Varn, Anita Dalton, and my sister Amanda.”

  Rune studied the little group. Amanda looked nothing like Sherry and seemed to have none of the other woman’s audacity. Or maybe she did, in a quieter way. She was the blonde who’d told Rune it was her fault they were unprotected.

  “First,” Rune said, “I need to know about the wolf Beldane had in his basement. I heard howls…they sounded tortured.”

  “She is healing,” Anita said. “And alive, thanks to you and Strad Matheson.”

  Grateful there was at least some good news, Rune nodded. “Good. Explain to me what you need.”

  “We need an alpha,” Dave said. “You killed our alpha. That means you get the job.”

  “Yeah. Exactly what you said before. I thought maybe I’d dreamed such an idiotic notion.”

  Sherry shrugged. “Not so crazy. You did knock off Beldane…a little thing I’ll be forever grateful to you for.”

  Rune raised an eyebrow. “Are you turning into a big marshmallow?”

  Sherry snorted. “That’ll be the fucking day.”

  “Can we focus?” Anita asked, but when Rune looked at her she immediately dropped her gaze. “I’m sorry.”

  Rune frowned. “For what?”

  “Beldane didn’t allow…insubordination,” Sherry said. “If Anita had been mouthy like that with him, she’d have been picking up her teeth right about now.”

  Rune looked at the three wolves. “Your alpha was a bully and a piece of shit. Now that he’s gone things will change for you.”

  They shot each other uneasy glances and refused to look at her.

  It pissed her off. “I’m nothing like Beldane. Why would you be afraid of me?”

  Dave finally looked up. “You have dark things in your eyes, Rune. Dead things. We understand that you wouldn’t hesitate to kill us.” He shook his head, then shrugged. “And that it wouldn’t really bother you all that much. Scary? Yeah. You’re fucking scary.”

  “You don’t know me.” But even to her ears, her voice lacked conviction. “If I’m so evil, why would you want me to be your alpha?”

  “Because you’re a scary fuck to the other groups as well,” Amanda said. “And we need a scary fuck.”

  She realized the wolves were already thinking of her as their alpha, their protector. That was why they were being so damn submissive. “I’m not your alpha. I’ll protect you and negotiate on your behalf, and I’ll kick the ass of anyone who messes with you. But that’s it. I can�
��t be your alpha.”

  “But Rune,” Sherry said, as the wolves looked on with bright eyes and smiles. “That’s exactly what an alpha does.”

  Rune narrowed her eyes. “I’ll do what I can until you find an actual alpha.” She put her hands on her hips and stared them down. “Which you’d better do in a fucking hurry.”

  The wolves stood. “Thank you,” Dave said. “Thank you.”

  She nodded. “Not long ago I only protected humans from Others. Now I guess I protect Others from Others. And,” she added, after thinking about it, “from humans.”

  “You protect, period,” Anita said, and smiled.

  “This means a lot to us.” Amanda walked to Sherry, and again Rune was amazed by their differences. Sherry would make three of the little wolf.

  “Careful of the reporters on your way out.”

  “Why are they harassing you?” Dave asked.

  “My boss decided to make Shiv Crew celebrities.” I hope that’s the reason. Please, let that be the reason.

  Sherry pushed the little group out the door before turning back to Rune. “I’m sorry about trying to blackmail you.” She paused, then hurried on. “And I’m sorry about your fucking mom.” She turned and rushed out the door before Rune could say a word.

  Rune shut the door before the reporters could get her on film. There was too much of her on film already. She’d been the opposite of careful but had learned a valuable lesson.

  She phoned Z. “I miss you,” she said when he answered. “How did it go last night?”

  He yawned. “We got home three hours ago, sweet thing.”

  “Dammit. Sorry, Z.”

  “Come cuddle with me.”

  She snorted. “Go back to sleep. Call me when you wake up.”

  “What are you doing?”

  She sighed. “I’m going to get some sleep as well. I’ll see you guys in the morning.”

  Unless the video aired.

  Yeah. She needed to hide, just for a little while.

  It was only ten o’clock at night, but she crawled under her soft sheets. With a mind exhausted from trauma, she fell into a sleep almost deep enough to be death.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  She forced her eyes open and looked at the clock, shocked when she saw it was almost noon. Groggy from too much sleep, she stumbled into her shower, standing for ten minutes under a stinging spray of icy water.

  Sometime during the night Strad had returned her car and pushed the keys through the mail slot. They’d fallen to the floor, leaving her undisturbed despite the racket they must have made.

  Two hot cups of coffee later she was ready to face the world. She buckled on nearly every blade she had, shoved a gun in a holster, then called Mitch.

  “I’m going in to give my statement to Rice. Do you have anything for me?”

  He hesitated. “Rune, you were shot. Stay home. Rest.”

  She frowned. “It was a tiny graze, and I’m fine.” She realized she was biting her nails and forced her fingers away from her mouth. “So what’s going to happen, Mitch? With the whole Jeremy shooting me thing?”

  He laughed, but more from disbelief than anything. “Rune, you were shot.”

  “Yes.”

  He sighed. “Jeremy said you attacked him, and it was an accident that the gun went off. Two witnesses inside the office agreed with him. Jeremy was eager to drop the matter, and Rice is willing to sweep it all under the rug.”

  “But?”

  “But Strad Matheson is not. He’s gone after Jeremy, but no one has any idea where Jeremy is.”

  “He’s hiding from the berserker, is where he is. The bastard.” Worry shot through her, and it took her a second to understand what it was. She was worried for the berserker? Really?

  “If you’re truly up for it, come in. Give your statement to Rice. And Rune…”

  “Yeah?”

  “What are you keeping from us?”

  “I’ll tell you when I get there, Mitch. It’s about Jeremy, of course. It’s why I confronted him.”

  “He was raping and beating Others.”

  She gasped. “How’d you find out?”

  “Some of the wolves came in once Beldane was out of the picture. They were terrified, though.”

  “When?”

  “This morning.”

  “Good for them. Mitch…”

  “Yes?”

  “The video?”

  “Pardon?”

  She almost cried, right then and there. Jeremy hadn’t made the video public. She hoped like hell Strad found him before he had a chance to hand it over to the media.

  “Never mind. I’ll be there in a few minutes to talk to Rice. Afterward, I want you to send me out.”

  “Most people would be in a hospital, not begging for work.”

  “Come on, Mitch. I can’t sit here. It’ll kill me.”

  He cleared his throat. “Go see Bill, then stop by the office. I have a little something.”

  She grinned. “Thanks, Mitch.” Sure, he wouldn’t be sending her on anything major, but she didn’t care. Downtime and Rune Alexander were uneasy acquaintances, and she for damn sure didn’t want it to turn into a deeper relationship.

  For a second, she wished she’d taken more of the blood Ellis had hung for her. After feeding Lex, fighting Beldane, and taking a bullet from Jeremy, she was in dire need. Her monster wasn’t even bugging her. And that wasn’t really a good thing.

  Later. She’d deal with it later.

  After all, she was accustomed to starving her monster.

  But a long, sharp icicle slid down her spine. Something wasn’t right. It hummed through her body, a low-level anxiety she’d tried to ignore since she woke up.

  She forgot the feeling of urgency when she stepped out onto her porch and was immediately besieged by reporters, flashing cameras, and hate.

  She batted them out of her way like flies, ignoring their questions and the eager revulsion they spewed with greedy zeal.

  Had they gotten the video after all?

  But no. It wasn’t the video that had them all stirred up—it was a rumor.

  “One of our sources tells us you’re actually an Other, Ms. Alexander. Is that true?”

  Fuck me.

  One of Jeremy’s employees hadn’t been able to keep his mouth shut. She shouldn’t have been surprised.

  But they didn’t have the video. She could handle anything else with ease.

  “I’m the same as I’ve always been, lady. Now get out of my way.”

  Some of her neighbors stood in little knots, and when they saw her they held up crude signs sporting such catchy little phrases such as GO LIVE IN WORMWOOD WITH THE OTHER MONSTERS and NO OTHERS ALLOWED.

  She might have laughed if it hadn’t cut a little too deeply.

  A reporter stuck a microphone in her face. “Ms. Alexander, could you really have hidden your status from the city all this time? Are you one of the monsters? What are your first words to us as an Other?”

  “Fuck you.”

  Mitch would be appalled but not surprised. Rune was not the most diplomatic of people. She took shit from no one.

  And she had a temper.

  “So you don’t deny you’re an Other?”

  “What type of Other are you, Ms. Alexander?”

  “Tell us, are you an Other?”

  The reporters stumbled back as she pulled two shivs. “Get the fuck off my porch and out of my yard before I take your fucking heads.”

  She caught a glimpse of the same reporter who’d been following her for days, standing at his favorite spot across the street. Quiet, watchful.

  At least he wasn’t shouting questions at her.

  One of the neighbors, a robust woman around fifty with whom Rune had only a nodding acquaintance, stepped closer and lifted her bible. “My church will pray for you.”

  Rune glared. “Tell the church not to waste its time, lady.”

  “The neighborhood can’t accept you if it’s true,” another n
eighbor called. He was too afraid of Rune’s wrath to come closer. “You will have to move, or you may find your house burned to the ground.”

  They looked at her like she was a monster. Pretty much the way she’d looked at herself since…since forever.

  She drove away with tires squealing, half amazed she’d generated so much attention because of a simple rumor. They probably didn’t even believe it, but people were eager for drama.

  God help her if she had to come out of the monster closet. If they got Jeremy’s video, it was over.

  The best thing she could do was go to work. The interest would fade. They would accept her once again.

  And if they didn’t, if the people of River County refused to let her do her job…she’d move. Start over.

  She’d take Shiv Crew with her. They had no families. They would go with her. Except for Ellis, maybe. He did have family in River County. His mother and father, some aunts and uncles.

  But she couldn’t go without Ellie.

  Suddenly she missed her crew with a painful intensity. She missed working with them, laughing with them. Hurting with them.

  Shiv Crew was her family.

  Don’t take them from me.

  Her meeting with Rice and a couple of his men took a little over an hour, but he was kind. While she was there she learned something about Rice—something she would take to the grave with her.

  He was Other.

  He didn’t tell her, but he didn’t have to. She saw his Other lurking behind his light blue eyes.

  She understood then why he was so gentle with her. He would have scented or sensed something different about her. He would have suspected all along.

  And somehow she felt less alone and a little less gloomy, despite the fact that Rice asked for her badge. “Temporary,” he’d said. “Just until we get to the bottom of the attack on Jeremy and straighten out this mess with the media.”

  She’d shrugged and handed over her badge. What else could she do?

  Ellis jumped up when she walked into SCRU and pulled her to him for one of his exasperating hugs. “The news—”

  She smiled and winked. “I know, baby. But soon everything will go back to normal.”

  “Did you see the reporters out front?”

  “See them? I had to shoot a couple of them.”